"They’re playing very well and they’re heavy to play against," Babcock said after the game. "What I mean by heavy is they’re hard on the other team’s (defense), they put miles on them.

"It doesn’t matter when you go on the road. We didn’t worry about a matchup one time tonight. We rolled the lines out the door. That makes it a lot easier."

Helm has been strong most of the season and has provided an offensive spark of late, with six points (including four goals) in seven games. He scored his 11th goal on Saturday, equaling his career high from last season.

Abdelkader also scored a goal, and seems to have more jump playing on the wing. Draper, who’s been rotated with Drew Miller as a healthy scratch the past couple of weeks, logged more PK minutes (4:09) than he has in a while and won 8-of-9 faceoffs.

"Our fourth line did a great job winning faceoffs, getting the puck deep and winning some battles down low," defenseman Niklas Kronwall said.

Helm, Miller (three goals in four games) and Abdelkader have combined for eight goals in the past seven games. That’s twice as many goals as Johan Franzen (one), Danny Cleary (one), Jiri Hudler (one), Valtteri Filppula (one), Henrik Zetterberg (none) and Todd Bertuzzi (none) have combined for during that stretch.

"We’re just trying to go out there, keep it simple," Abdelkader said. "Between myself, Drapes, Helmer and Millsie, we can all skate and hang onto pucks down low. I think we’ve all had good chemistry together and are kind of building game after game."

They’ve helped improve the penalty kill, which is 28 for 31 (90.3 percent) in the past nine games.

"Being on the penalty kill, we take a lot of pride in blocking shots, keeping it simple," Abdelkader said. "Anytime you can contribute it’s a bonus, but we’re not counting on that. We’re counting on being smart, cycling the puck and playing well defensively. And the penalty kill comes into play there, too."

Babcock credited them for spending a lot of time in the gym.

"The reason (Helm and Abdelkader) are going to be such good players is they’re so committed," Babcock said. "And Draper’s a great example for them. I hope that they can have careers like Drapes has had. Be that kind of person and that kind of leader in the room and that kind of guy who does everything right and makes the young guys around him better.

"That’s the challenge. That’s what Draper’s job is, to make sure that those guys are going to be here for many years, after Drapes is in management, to do the things that he’s done."

Odds & ends• Defenseman Ruslan Salei returned to southern California after Saturday’s game to be with his wife, who is expecting their third child this week. Salei is expected to miss games against Washington (Wednesday at home) and Columbus (Thursday away).

• The Red Wings will have Brian Rafalski back on Wednesday. He has missed eight games with back spasms.

• The Zetterberg-Cleary-Bertuzzi line had no points and was on the ice for both Blues goals in the third period. But Babcock said that doesn’t reflect how they played.

"I thought Zetterberg’s line was dominant and yet they happened to be on the ice for the two goals," Babcock said. "That’s just the way it goes."

• The Red Wings are 7-4-1 in the second game when playing on back-to-back nights.

"I don’t care who you are, it’s always tough the second night in this league and we did a good job," Babcock said.